The Dragon Child
by TheGrammarHawk
Summary: Shard the Dragon Child, a girl who dives down from a storm on a Night Fury. Who just happens to be Hiccup's long lost twin. What could possibly go wrong? Bad summary, granted. Give it a chance. With double the trouble, anything can go wrong. T for mild swearing and my being paranoid. HiccupXAstrid TuffnutXOC and a tiny bit of FishlegsXRuffnut if you look real close.
1. Chapter 1: Shard

So... ah... yes, I'm trying this. First HTTYD fanfic... I'm probably going to suck. There may be some misspelled things (though I'm very good at spelling) and, ah, odd Viking lingo and accents... Yeah... Heh, this'll be interesting. HiccupXAstrid TuffnutXOC and if you squint real hard you'll see a little bit of FishlegsXRuffnut.

Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD, it is not mine. I do not have a Night Fury hiding in my backyard, that is simply an... illusion...

...

It was a dark and stormy day. No one was out flying, it was simply too dangerous. Yet, somehow, people claimed that the clouds looked stirred up by wings. It wasn't until the signature Night Fury fire ball came through the clouds and it the center of town square, like a sign for help. When Hiccup saw this, first he went up to his room and checked that Toothless was still there, still asleep, before going down to his father, Stoick.

"Er, Dad?" "What is it Hiccup?" "Er… I think I saw something outside." "What now Hiccup? Let me guess, another Night Fury?" "Yes."

Stoick nearly fell off of his stool, "What?" he spluttered. He paled. "That's… no Night Fury would be doin' that, not in this weather, unless they were being forced! We ought to see what's goin' on!"

They went outside, Toothless appeared and followed. It was dark, and there was lightning and a drizzle, but they could make out a dark shape flying in the clouds.

Astrid appeared by Hiccup's side, "Oh, that isn't you? I thought you might be doing something stupid again. So… who's that then?" Just then they saw something dive out of the clouds, leaving a shriek in its wake. It kept getting closer, and closer, until it crashed into the ground.

It was indeed a Night Fury, and it did have a rider. But the person was so covered in mud and, now, blood, they couldn't be made out. But Stoick plowed through, and gently lifted the figure. The Night Fury growled faintly, but seemed too weak to move.

Fishlegs had appeared as well, and he whispered, "Doesn't that seem like Toothless? I mean, duh, it's a Night Fury, but it also seems protective of that person. Weird, huh?" But then Stoick spoke.

"I'd know this face anywhere! It's… it's Shard!" Shard. Hiccup had heard that name before; his father mentioned it on occasion. She was some girl who was abducted at a young age, they said, during a battle with dragons. None of the teenagers really knew who she was; their parents wouldn't talk about it.

Hiccup walked up to his father, Toothless following. Toothless went over to the other Night Fury, looking at it nervously. Whether he was afraid of it, or worried for it, Hiccup couldn't tell. He looked at the figure in his father's large arms.

It was a girl, who he'd put at about his age or maybe a bit younger. She had dark red hair, tied back in a ponytail instead of braided, it had some lighter, brighter, streaks of red, and it was wavy and would be rather pretty if it was not matted with filth and blood. Her eyes were narrow slits, as if she was still in shock and her brain was still settling into unconsciousness, but the green of them still showed. She was very skinny, like she was underfed, and she seemed to be short, for whatever age she was. However, she did have some lean and well-toned muscles. She was scrawny, yet strong.

Astrid came up, as well as Fishlegs, Tuffnut, Ruffnut, and Snotlout. Astrid looked up at Stoick, and whispered, "She could stay at my place." She seemed to think that, as none of the adults had come forward to claim Shard as their daughter, they might be away or… dead. But Stoick's reply had an underlying tone of harshness, "No. She's staying with us."

Hiccup knew by 'us' he had meant him. When they turned to leave, he whispered to Toothless, "Take care of friend, okay bud?" Toothless made eye contact with him and looked back at the Night Fury, showing he understood.

So, they went back to their home, and Hiccup followed his father through a few corridors he didn't recognize completely. Finally they came into a room he had never been in before. Actually, it looked a lot like his, with similar furnishings, including a bed. He didn't completely understand why they had this room, perhaps it was for people who visited Berk and needed a place to stay? That was very, very unlikely.

Stoick laid the fragile girl down on the bed, carefully as not to smear any blood. "So… Dad… why do we have this room and who exactly is Shard?" Stoick eyed him carefully, as if wary.

He sighed, "Okay, where do I start? Well, this room was built for Shard. You see… she's your sister… your younger twin, specific'ly. When you two were abo'… three or four years ol'… a battle with the dragons was particularly fierce. Your mother and I… we were out at the time, see? With you and Shard. The attack came suddenly. We – all of us were separated. But your mother and I kept an eye on you two; we jus'… jus' got carried away… We looked up in time to see the shadow of a dragon flyin' away, little Shard clutched in its jaws… we were sure we'd never see 'er again. Bu'… here's livin' proof we were wrong. D'you… d'you mind keepin' an eye on her Hiccup?"

Hiccup looked at the injured girl on the bed, and suddenly felt a sense of… protectiveness, like the way he sometimes felt with Toothless, "Yeah, sure, Dad."

As Stoick left, Hiccup called out to him, "You know… by the looks of it, she's a hiccup too. And yet, I'm named 'Hiccup'?"

His father smiled at him, "Well… I named your sister… I'm not sure what your mother had in mind namin' you, but to her you were her sweet little Hiccup. An' I reckon Shard was a bit stronger than you when you were little."

And he left, leaving Hiccup alone with his newly discovered twin. He looked at his sister, who looked like she could be a few years younger than what she apparently was, and how frail she seemed. What exactly had happened to Shard? How had she managed to survive after being taken by a dragon, and what dragon had taken her? There was so much he wanted to ask her, especially about her own Night Fury. She seemed, before she crashed, just as at ease with it as he was with Toothless. And her Night Fury reacted in a protective way that, which Fishlegs had pointed out, was an awful lot like Toothless. And, sure, she did look a _little_ like him… she was… cute. He hoped that she could get better soon.

...

New Night Fury, Hiccup's twin, what could go wrong? Heheh... oh, you'll find out.


	2. Chapter 2: Shard's Story

Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD, it is not mine. I do not have a Night Fury hiding in my backyard, that is simply an... illusion...

A little background on Shard, we find out the name of her dragon, and towards the end we get a little bit of sibling love&protectiveness. Of course, not from Ruff&Tuff. I'm not THAT OOC. Hopefully I'm not OOC at all!

...

Finally, two days later, when Hiccup was checking on Shard with Astrid, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Snotlout were also stopping by to see if there was any progress. They had all walked in to her room, where Hiccup, Toothless, and the other Night Fury were all sitting, when Shard sat bold upright, nearly gasping as her body flooded with pain.

She looked at the teenagers in bewilderment, as if she was truly frightened. She opened her mouth as if she was going to scream, when the Night Fury ran at her and proceeded to lick her all over, nearly soiling the bandages around her wounds. She laughed, a bit more comfortable now, "Whoa, Darkcloud! Down, down, I can't breathe!" The Night Fury with purple eyes, Darkcloud, got down and looked at her expectantly. Shard turned her attention back to the others with a look on her face that still shadowed fear.

"You… aren't afraid?" she said softly.

Snotlout was, unfortunately, the one who answered, "You? Why'd we be afraid of you?"

She opened her green eyes as wide as they could go, "You're… different! Where I was, people were terrified of me… they gave me a title, a name… who are you?"

Everyone looked at Hiccup, as if he should be the one to answer that question. He nodded, and looked at her, "Hey, Shard… Well, we aren't afraid of you. Here, you're the daughter of our chief, Stoick the Vast," she nodded, "Yes, I remember him." "Well, that's not it. Er… I'm your older twin brother, Hiccup. Hiccup the… Dragon Trainer."

Shard looked at him, eyes still wide; it reminded him eerily of a dragon, almost, "Oh. Yes, yes, I remember you. A… little. Well, as you may or may not know, I'm Shard, the Dragon Child."

"Dragon Child?" Fishlegs echoed. Shard smiled at him, her eyes not as wide, as if she had calmed down. She seemed to have thought that they would have been frightened by her name.

"Yes, Dragon Child. That's what the people called me. Well, you see, I was carried off by a Night Fury… a rather powerful one. He carried me to an island-" "A Night Fury?" Hiccup echoed, "It couldn't have been Toothless, right?"

Shard looked at Toothless, smiling, "Toothless? Is that your name now? I remember you! You've gotten bigger!" she looked back at Hiccup, "No… it wasn't Toothless. It was Toothless' father."

"His… father?" they echoed. Shard nodded, and rubbed Toothless' head, "Oh, yes. Where to begin. Well, I suppose we can start there… So yes, the Night Fury took me that time, and brought me to another island, intending, apparently, to feed me to his mate and –" "Excuse me," Shard looked at Fishlegs in slight annoyance, like she was getting to a good part. "What?"

"Why is… er, Darkcloud… why does Darkcloud have purple eyes? Is it, er, a defect or something?"

Shard's eyes narrowed dangerously, again like a dragon, as if she was calculating him and analyzing his very being. "Is Toothless the only Night Fury you've _ever_ seen up close?" the look on their faces said enough. She motioned to Darkcloud, "Darkcloud is slightly smaller than Toothless and has purple eyes. Does this mean anything to you? Aren't you dragon experts? I mean, you've killed enough of them." Again, their faces said plenty. Shard sighed, as if she was explaining it to toddlers, and said (with slight annoyance and a hint of exasperated sarcasm) "Darkcloud is _female_."

Hiccup nearly did a face-palm, "Oh my Gods, I can't believe we didn't realize that. Darkcloud is a female Night Fury. Didn't even consider it."

Shard smiled at his slight, dry humor. "Yes, exactly. Now as I was _saying_, he was planning to feed me to his mate and two dragon young. One of the young was nearly full grown, the other a year or two younger. But the young didn't seem interested in eating me… they liked playing. Flying, too. They were so sweet, so gentle. They seemed to know how young I was and were very careful around me. The mother took care of me too, and one day the father was killed by the humans from a nearby village. Lucky for me, I guess. The dragon mother taught me how to hunt, and made me strengthen my sense of smell and hearing, and I guess a few of my behaviors are dragon-like. Like… you guys seem a little unnerved by my eyes, for instance. Well, those two young… were Toothless and Darkcloud. Darkcloud is Toothless' younger sister."

Snotlout pointed at Hiccup, then at Shard, and then at Toothless, and finally at Darkcloud. He looked a little freaked out.

Shard smiled, "Yeah, weird isn't it? I guess Nigh Furies like us, huh? Maybe it's because we're weaker than the other Vikings and don't pose as big a threat to them, they trust us more. And I've found some dragons species like to raise their self-confidence by taking care of something weaker than them, like protecting them. But they can get overprotective. I don't know if that's the case for Night Furies, but…"

A shout came from outside. Fishlegs jumped, "Oh… I think that's my dad… man, it got late fast!" The other teenagers, seeing that it was getting dark, made hasty excuses to leave. Finally it was the Hiccup, Shard, and their two dragons left.

Hiccup looked at the clothes Shard was wearing: She wore a dark purple shirt, and brown leather pants, and a shiny black vest. When he looked closer, he saw the vest was made of scales…

Shard flinched when she saw him studying her, "Oh, er… yes, my vest is made of Night Fury scales. They were everywhere, so I made myself a protective vest. They're very tough for a reason, you see? And…" she suddenly looked embarrassed, "I'm so glad I got back. Darkcloud and I left for a reason, you see. The humans had gotten very violent towards us, and had injured the mother so that she couldn't defend us." She stopped, breath caught. Darkcloud sensed the mood shift and, suddenly tackled her, dragging Shard off of her bed and onto the floor, where she proceeded to wrestle her gently.

Shard started laughing as she wrestled her dragon. But she also kept talking, and you could hear the pain in her voice, "They took us by surprise. The mother, though she was injured, managed to fly away. The Vikings had brought weapons and torches and… some neighboring dragons even joined in. And that battle made people learn permanent pain…" she was flipped over and her head landed next to Hiccup's feet. She saw the prosthetic. She nodded, "which you know." She stroked the end of it with one finger. Hiccup flinched; he had never – whether it was skin or prosthetic – been touched like that. It was gentle, yet almost haunting.

Then he saw Darkcloud nudge Shard's back and saw her wince. "I'm sorry Hiccup. I know how it feels to have something be that painful. Of course, your foot is just gone. I at least _have_ my back."

She stood, turning away from him, so that her back was to him. She took off her vest, and pulled up her shirt. What Hiccup saw looked _painful_. Raw, bloody, charred flesh. A horrible burn wound, it looked about a month old. It covered her back from an inch above her waist to right below her slightly armored bra. Toothless stopped and stared at it. Finally, she put her shirt back down and redid her vest. She looked at Hiccup, and whispered, "Some of the other dragons forgot which side I was on."

Hiccup stood, and grabbed her in a tight – but gentle – hug, "That will never happen again." He held her out in front of him, "You're home now."


	3. Chapter 3: Racing

Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD, it is not mine. I do not have a Night Fury hiding in my backyard, that is simply an... illusion...

...

It was a few days after Shard had woken up. The teenagers had told her about the battle with Red Death, which had happened a month ago. Soon, she was back on her feet and wandering the island with Darkcloud. Without Stoick, who was out visiting a neighboring island about peace with dragons, it took nearly all of the teenagers to keep an eye out for the curious girl. While she had the grace of some dragons, she was still clumsy nonetheless, and she didn't know the island well.

One day she walked into the Dragon Training Academy. Everyone was there, with their dragons. It seemed they were talking about her.

"I'm telling you guys, she won't stand a chance against me and Hookfang in a race."

"I'm not so sure Snotlout, she's riding a Night Fury and she's Hiccup's sister, and when has he ever failed to beat you?"

"Astrid has a good point; Night Furies are typically faster than Monstrous Nightmares."

"And she is my sister, so yeah; she does have one up on you there."

She walked in slowly, Darkcloud following curiously, "You could just race us and find out. Unless you're," she gave them all a dangerous smile, like one that Hookfang normally would wear, "too afraid you'll lose to me."

…

They all stood, ready to fly off the cliff and over the water. Hiccup admired Shard for being able to do something he couldn't: she rode Darkcloud bareback. Of course, he had to use the saddle for Toothless, or else he couldn't fly, but still.

"Ready, set, go!"

They each took off, and soon Toothless and Darkcloud had pulled ahead of the others. They jeered at each other, teasing one another as they flew.

"Hey Shard, I bet you can't do this!" Hiccup urged Toothless into doing a loop-dee-loop, laughing as he did.

Shard rolled her eyes, chuckling to herself, "Oh, how about this?" she clicked her tongue and made an odd, throaty, crooning noise. Darkcloud smiled toothlessly and laughed the strange, dragon laugh before corkscrewing, shooting forward and turning over, and over, and over, while Shard's long ponytail spiraled in the wind. It was a miracle that Shard didn't fall off.

Finally they both touched down. Shard fell off of Darkcloud and onto the ground, "Whoa, I haven't done so many flips in at least a year." Darkcloud nosed her and she laughed.

Hiccup jumped off of Toothless as the others caught up. "So, who won?" Astrid asked.

"I bet it was Hiccup," Tuffnut said, and Ruffnut retorted, "I bet it was Shard!"

"Well," Shard panted, getting up, "it was a tie. We're both equally supreme."

Snotlout snorted, "You sound like the twins only like you get along."

Hiccup and Shard glanced at each other, before Hiccup said, "Well… that's because we _are_ twins, and we _do_ get along."

Fishlegs laughed awkwardly, "Yeah, the main difference is when you put Hiccup and Shard together; you get a well-oiled working machine. When you put Ruffnut and Tuffnut together, you get a… explosion." As if on cue, Tuffnut tackled Ruffnut, yelling and shouting nonsense at her as they wrestled.

"Yeah…" Hiccup echoed. Shard flinched as something touched her skin, she jumped and Darkcloud tackled her to the ground, covering her completely.

"What?" Astrid shouted, "What's wrong Shard?"

Shard's eyes had gone wide from under Darkcloud, and she whispered, "Snow."

"You're afraid of snow?" Snotlout mused, "You're the Viking daughter of Stoick the Vast, raised by the Night Furies, and you're _afraid_ of _snow_?" "Shut up!" she yelled from under Darkcloud.

She poked her head out, eyes now narrowed dangerously, "Do you remember anything about my upbringing? Every winter we nearly starved to death, Darkcloud and I relying on her mother to find us food. I… remember when it was the winter and her mother was injured. We went out, searching for food, but got caught in a storm. We were trapped in a cave for a week. We had no food, we licked the ice of the cave walls, and we had to rely on each other for heat. After a while, the moisture and lack of food started to get to us. Darkcloud got a cold and couldn't use fire. Soon I couldn't even speak. We got out eventually, of course, but I've never really had a good experience with snow… or storms, as you can see."

Ruffnut rolled her eyes, "Well you don't have to worry about that here." But Tuffnut looked shocked at his sister, "But what about the time the barn got buried? You're wrong!" "No I'm not!" they started fighting again.


	4. Chapter 4: Mildew

Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD, it is not mine. I do not have a Night Fury hiding in my backyard, that is simply an... illusion...

**Evee11: Thank you!**

**Dobby13: Yes, great minds DO think alike! Although that is a bit creepy... O.O Thanks, though!**

...

They got back to the village soon enough. They found Mildew standing there, as if waiting for them. Fungus was chewing grass right next to him.

Mildew sneered, "Ah, I see we've got another dragon-loving runt-of-a-Viking in Berk. Fabulous, you know, I think that's just what we needed."

"Leave her alone, Mildew!" Hiccup warned, "Shard is new to Berk and there's nothing wrong with loving dragons. I'm sure that my dad would love to hear your complaints about Shard."

Mildew rolled his eyes, "Because your father would actually care if I was picking on a new runt in the village. Just another unruly teenager in my eyes."

Shard was tight lipped and looked furious but Hiccup spoke up again. "I'm sure that he'll care about Shard, being that she is… you know… his _daughter_."

Mildew looked surprised. "What? Stoick has no daughter; he only has you… though I assumed you may be considered his daughter after all." Snotlout snorted, finding it hilarious, "Burn!"

Shard rolled her eyes, and said "Darkcloud." Darkcloud licked her scaly lips and tackled Mildew, growling. Shard snapped her fingers and stood next to them, hand hovering above Darkcloud's head. "You were saying, you old coot?"

Mildew was silently freaking out over the dragon on top of him but kept it cleverly hidden. "You little brat you have no right to do this to me! Call off your mangy lizard!"

Shard kneeled and looked him straight in the eye, "Not until you, you disgrace, acknowledge me, Shard, the Dragon Child, daughter of Stoick the Vast, and that Darkcloud is a Night Fury – the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself."

Mildew gulped at Shard, with her fiery hair and bright green eyes. She was truly intimidating. She held herself in a deadly position, as if she was a dragon herself. "You are Shard… daughter of Stoick. And your dragon is a Night Fury. Settled?"

Shard snarled and stood. She turned around and started walking away, and clicked her tongue. Darkcloud lunged after her.

As Mildew got up, brushing off dirt, Astrid smiled, "Seems like you've made yourself an enemy, Mildew. I don't think Shard was the best person to mess with."

"Shut up."

...

**AN: Sorry it's very short...**


End file.
